The nightmare trip
by StarGirlXxx
Summary: A four week trip across the ocean to a far off village, with no work to do, save negotiating a trading rout between Suna and the village of the hidden sea, AND they get free food, this HAS got to be too good to be true. Especially with some of council members still opposing the decision to make him Kage, but just how far would they go to change that?
1. Chapter 1

The sun was low over the sky, casting a hunting red hue over everything, not that there can really be many other colours in a desert. The sand stretches out, far, far into the distance, as far as the eye can see. And, just as suddenly the huge mountains of sand give way to the huge, shining ocean. They're not so different really; both are as endless as the sky, ever changing ever flowing, never still. In the middle of it all, sand pelleting their skin like bullets, and the wind whipping at their cloths, the silhouettes of three dark figures; their heads bowed, collars turned up against the wind keeping the sand from their eyes and mouths, or, trying to, anyway. "Gaara…. Is.. Is this _really_ necessary?" Her voice is soft, muffled by her shirt as she tries not to inhale any more sand, but even that doesn't hide the slight irritation.

"Yes" his tone is flat, and sturdy, no room for argument there then.

"Ergh.. Are we nearly there yet?"

Both siblings turn and glare at their brother

"Stop whining, yes, we're almost there now, look you can see the ship form here"

"What! That tiny little thing, Gaara that'll take FOREVER to reach…. Ergh why'd I agree to come on this shitty trip any way"

Gaara cocks an eyebrow at his brother "you can always turn back" he says icily "believe me, I'm not complaining."

Kankuro scowls "dickwad" he mutters, earning another raised eyebrow

"_Really_, Kankuro, _really_, that's the best insult you could come up with? What are you? Five!"

He glares darkly, opening his mouth to respond; Tamari quickly cuts her younger brother off, not wanting to see him piss Gaara off, especially not when they have to spend the next four week in close quarters with him. He may not be a murdering psychopath any more but he's still a pain in the neck if you annoy him, "hey! Look you can see the sea from here, look!"

Both men stare at her, Kankuro's expression clearly saying "well DUH" whilst Gaara's is blank, one eyebrow raised slightly at her. Nether seem very impressed with her observation, but it has the desired effect

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response" Gaara says turning away from her and staring into the distance.

Surprisingly it doesn't take the trio long to reach the ship, which is already swarming with other ninjas.

"Gaara-sama?" "hm?" Gaara turns back to face the man addressing him, he's a tall sturdy built man with a mop of greying brown hair and a hint of stubble smudging his cheeks Gaara recognises him as the captain.

"What can I do for you?" Gaara asks, smiling slightly at the man, who grins back "Just thought I'd let ya know we're leaving in half an hour" his voice is rough and loud but not in the least bit threatening.

"Thank you," Gaara reply's softly

"Oh," he says holding his hand out "you might want these, they're your room keys" he says passing them to Gaara, who nods and turns back to his siblings, "come on."


	2. Chapter 2: Too good to be true

Chapter one, Too good to be true.

Gaara groans, gripping the cold steel handrail watching his knuckles turn white, wincing as the ship jolts again.

"Hey, Gaara, you ok?"

He glances up, Tamari's standing at the end of the corridor, silhouetted against the bright stark light coming from the open door. One hand against the wall the other on her hip, eyebrows furrowed in concern

"Gaara?" she steps towards him, her shoes clacking on the polished oak floor, "polished oak… Who puts POLISHED floors on a boat? Are they TRYING to kill us?" Gaara blinks, shaking his head and focusing back of Temari, who's now peering at his face in concern

"Gaara are you-"

"Yes, Temari, I'm fine"

He cuts her off not really wanting this conversation to go on any longer than it has too.

"What-" she blinks at him looking mildly confused "what were you doing?"

He frowns, not entirely sure what to tell her, the truth doesn't seem like such a great idea, telling her he feels sick will just make her fuss, and that is not something he's willing to put up with.

"Nothing" he says lamely, she doesn't look impressed "I fell, and caught myself on the hand rail, I was just getting my balance back, and then you walked in"

"You're an awful liar Gaara"

He sighs heavily "I am, aren't I"

"Yes, now tell me what's wrong!" Her voice is stern, but he knows she's not annoyed with him, just concerned.

"It-it's nothing really, I just… I guess boats don't agree with me" he stares at the floor, feeling his face turn red. Temari's reaction is not the one he expected, to be honest he wasn't sure exactly what he'd expected, except that being laughed at was NOT it.

"Oh Gaara, Gaara I'm sorry" she gasps through her laughter "It's not funny, really it's not I-" she breaks off, grinning guiltily at her brother before composing herself

"I'm sorry, Gaara, why don't you go and lie down or something? I'll get you some water" Gaara supresses a groan, he almost preferred it when she was laughing at him, _almost._

"No, Temari, it's fine, being below deck's only making me feel worse any way" she frowns at him, concern furrowing her brows

"Gaara-"

"Please Temari, don't fuss OK?" he holds her gaze, giving her a faint smile, after a second she sighs and smiles back

"Sorry, habit" she flashes him a grin "well, I'll see ya later then, try not to throw up on any of my things, yeah?"

~Two weeks ago~

The room is dark, and empty, the only light coming from a small gas burner set on the only piece of furniture a large round polished oak table in the centre. Two dark, cloaked figures sit whilst a third stands, around the table. All three wear long black cloaks, and simplistic animal masks fashioned from painted white wood, similar to those worn by ANBU black ops agents. The standing man's is the most striking, a tiger(or possibly a ferocious tabby cat, but, most likely a tiger), most of the face white, but the stripes are blood red.

"I suppose you all know why you're here?" Tiger says, his voice low, the other two, one supporting a monkey mask and the other a badger turn to meet his gaze. He sighs, realizing they want him to spell it out for them.

"The mission" he's met with black stares, not that stares can be anything else when you're wearing a mask, but still, again he sighs "it's the perfect opportunity to deal with… Our little problem, if you see what I mean"

He chuckles dryly as the other two begin to catch on, Badger smiles slyly under his mask

"I know a man, someone who always opposed making _him_ kage, he'd do the job for us"

"Excellent, make sure it can't be traced back to us"

"Of course, I'm not that careless!"

"Good, I'll leave the rest of the preparations to you then, you know I dislike, getting my hands dirty" he speaks slowly his voice low, dangerous, Tiger is not someone you cross and expect to live to tell the tale.


	3. Chapter 3 Fluff

Chapter two

Gaara glares at the ceiling, as though it's personally responsible for his current situation, who ever said sea sickness wore off had obviously never experienced it. The boat lurches again and he groans, rolling over in a rather feeble attempt at getting comfortable. The cabin's small, and like the rest of the ship virtually everything is made of wood, the furniture is sparse, two beds and wardrobe and a bedside table. This would have been fine, if it weren't for the fact that, due to the ship being relatively small, he was currently having to share a room. No, scratch that… Sharing would have been fine; if only it weren't Kankuro he's sharing with! Speaking of Kankuro, Gaara sighs, glancing up at the rooms other resident.

"What are you doing?" Gaara asks, cocking his head in confusion at his brother, who appears to be half way through getting up, at least that's the best explanation he can come up with as for why the older boy is currently standing, shirtless, his back to him, in the middle of the room. Kankuro jumps turning to face him.

"Looking" he replies distractedly, almost instantly going back to staring blankly at the half of the room he's currently inhabiting. Gaara sighs

"Looking for _what?_"

He doesn't reply, Gaara resists the urge to throw something at him "_honestly, why him... why HIM? it could have been any one, but no I have to share with him!"_. Deep down he knows he doesn't really mind his brother, in fact, if he had to name the person he was closest too his siblings would come top, unfortunately that doesn't stop Kankuro driving him up the wall.

"Kankuro?" he snaps his voice low

"What?" he replies pulling his suitcase out from under the bed and beginning to rummage through it, spewing the contents across the floor.

"What are you- oh never mind" he grumbles, deciding he doesn't really care; besides there's more pressing question at hand…

"Is there any particular _reason_ you're shirtless?" He asks, frowning disapprovingly at his brother.

"You can't talk, you're not even out of bed yet!" his voice rises indignantly, but he still doesn't bother to look around. Gaara sighs staring in something like dismay and the mess emanating around his brother.

"What are you actually looking for? And do you really need to make such big mess?"

Kankuro ignores him, instead punching the air victoriously and pulling a small tub of face paint out of his suit case, "_seriously… He spread the entire contents of his suitcase across the floor for face paint? Ergh, no wonder his rooms such a death trap"_

"I am _not_ clearing that up!" Gaara growls irritably at his brother

"Fuck sake Gaara, you sound like Temari!" Gaara winces as his brother raises his voice, a mixture of irritation and guilt washing over him, he turns away, pulling the cover up over him,

"Sorry" he mutters staring miserably at the wall, he knows he's overreacting, he also knows it's rather stupid but really, he hates arguing with his brother under normal circumstances, let alone when he's feeling like hell.

"Aww c'mon Gaara, don't sulk just cuz I snapped at you"

"I'm not sulking" he replies his voice muffled by the blankets pulled up around his chin, there's a rustle of cloth and the sound of Kankuro's feet. Gaara turns slightly watching his brother, who seems to have found a shirt from somewhere, pad towards him, his un-brushed hair sticking up in odd directions and his face pain half finished. He plops down heavily next to Gaara, making the bed jolt.

"Gaara, look, I'm sorry I snapped at you ok?" Gaara cringes at the concern on his brothers face and sighs, sitting up and rubbing a hand through his hair _"this is dumb, what am I even upset about?"_ he mentally sighs glancing up at his brother, who surprisingly looks concerned, although not very sorry "_makes sense really, since he didn't ACTUALLY do anything"_

"No you're not" he laughs shaking his head at his own stupidity Kankuro blinks at him, and grins

"Yeah, you're right; I'm not" the usual teasing returning to his tone, "seriously, though I didn't mean to upset you"

Gaara glances up at him smiling slightly "I know, it's fine, you didn't I'm just in an awful mood that's all"

Kankuro grins mischievously and ruffles Gaara's hair, _"I take it back, I take all back I hate you so much right now_" he jumps up grabbing his brothers arm and twisting it into arm lock, not that that's particularly effective against a shinobi of Kankuro's level but still; Kankuro throws him off easily, Gaara darts up using his sand to grab his brother grinning evilly at him "_I might be the kage but I can still mess around when I want to, besides I'm sure no one will mind as long as I don't hurt him too badly"_


	4. Chapter 4 Contact

_The shinobi frowns glancing around the rather busy food court _"Come on, it's almost twelve, where is he, unless I've missed him" _Panic flares in his chest at the thought "_no"_ he reassures himself_ "no I've been here since eight there's no way I've missed him!" _ he scowls, and returns to scanning the room, there are many, many shinobis here, but despite this he's sure his target isn't here. He hears the creak of the door, quiet, but audible to his finely tuned sense, he swings round, and gasps. "_Finally! Finally I KNEW I hadn't missed him"_ he watches as the group makes there was through the court towards a free table, by now the rest of the shinobis have noticed their presence to, a tense silence falls over the hall for a few seconds before it becomes apparent that all they want to do is eat their breakfast. He shifts position slightly making sure to keep them in his view "_I can't lose them, for this to work, I CAN'T lose them"_ he waits patiently whilst they eat, he's already waited four hours another won't hurt him. Surprisingly though after only a few minutes his target stands, pushing the mostly untouched plate away from himself and excusing himself "_this is it this is perfect, this is my chance!" _Jumping up and grabbing the pile of books next to him he hurries after the figure, keeping close to him using the shadows as cover. He doesn't trail him for long, just long enough to figure out his rout and dart down a rather dark, damp looking corridor, his feet echoing loudly around the confined space as he sprints. The corridor ends abruptly and he skids to a halt, pressing his ear against the door until he hears the faint clacking of footsteps. His hear hammers in his chest as he forces himself to wait, to calm down, to listen, _"you've got to this right, come on, pay attention, LISTEN!"

"NOW!"

_He ruses forward door slamming open, instantly colliding with the figure the books flying out of his hands_

"_I am SO sorry!" he yelps staring in horror at the man in front t of him_

"_That's ok" the man replies bending down and picking up the nearest couple of books_

"_Oh, thank you" he jumps down grabbing the rest of his books and straightening up_

"_Here" his target replies handing him the rest_

"_Thank you" he flashes him a grin "I'm sorry for running into you, I should really watch where I'm going"_

"_Yes" he says coldly "that would be a good idea"_

"dick!" _"haha yeah, sorry again" he grins at his target _

"_Honestly, it's fine" he says, and the frowns "What's your name?"_

"_M-My name?" he fakes the appropriate fear_

"_Yes, what is it" his voice is cold, irritable _

"_I-it's Yuriki sir… I-I'm not in trouble am I?" _"I knew there was a reason I hated this guy, fucking prick"

"_What? For running into me? No, of course not" he fakes relief_

"_It's just that I don't recognise you, I like to know who I'm working with you see" he give Yuriki a faint smile _

"_Well Yuriki, I'm sure you have duties to attend to, try not to knock anyone else over hum?" he laughs _

"_sure, lord kage"_


End file.
